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Castellon de La Plana (Capital)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Castellon de La Plana (Province)

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The capital of the province described above, on the Barcelona-Valencia railway, 4 m. from the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900) 29,904. The broad and fertile plain in which Castellon is built is watered artificially by a Moorish aqueduct, largely cut through the solid rock, and supplied by the estuary of the Mijares, 5 m. south-east. The town is partly encircled by ancient walls; and, although most of its public buildings are modern, it contains several convents of early foundation, a curious old bell-tower, 150 ft. high, and a parish church chiefly noteworthy for a painting in the interior by Francisco Ribalta, who was born here in the middle of the 16th century. Castellon has a brisk trade, its manufactures comprising porcelain, leather, silk, linen, brandy and cork goods. Its harbour, El Gráo de Castellon, about 4 m. east, is annually entered by some 200 small vessels. A light railway, which traverses the numerous and profitable orange plantations on the south-west, connects it with the towns of Almazora, Villarreal, Burriana and Onda. Under its Moorish rulers Castellon occupied a hill to the north of its present site; its removal to the plain by James I. of Aragon (1213-1276) gave the town its full name, "Castellon of the Plain."